4 Week Residential Sabbatical 

At the heart of the Christian faith is a radical claim: God chose to fully enter the human experience. Through the Incarnation, all of our embodied life on earth, its joys, struggles, grief, wonder, is intimately known. The human body is not incidental to our faith; it is very ground of our faith.

Pope Francis in Laudato Si’ tells us that care for creation and care for the human person are inseparable. At An Tairseach we believe that healing begins when we return, together, to the sacred ground of our own embodied lives.

In Laudato Si’, Pope Francis calls us to hear both the cry of the earth and the cry of the poor as one. This is Integral Ecology that weaves together care for creation, care for one another and care for the self.

Now, in his first encyclical Magnifica Humanitas, Pope Leo XIV deepens this invitation, insisting that in an age of artificial intelligence and rapid technological change, the irreducible dignity of the human person must be safeguarded — not despite our embodied, creaturely nature, but precisely through it.

It is in this spirit that An Tairseach, the Dominican Ecology Centre in Co. Wicklow, is delighted to announce its first month-long October Sabbatical — an invitation to stop, to return to the body and to encounter the sacred at the threshold where self, community and the living Earth meet.

This four-week immersion is designed for those who are carrying the weight of ministry, vocation, or service. This programme is for those who need space to be tended rather than to tend and be reinvigorated in the process.

Set & Setting

An Tairseach is a 70-acre Organic Farm and Ecology Centre in Wicklow Town, Ireland, set on a backdrop of the stunning Wicklow Mountains and Irish Sea.

Founded in the tradition of the Dominican Sisters, we are committed to the integration of ecology, spirituality and justice, rooted in the teachings of Laudato Si,’ Magnifica Humanitas and the Celtic Christian heritage of Ireland.

Our 4-week October Sabbatical will be a transformational, therapeutic experience allowing each guest to rest, heal and immerse themselves in the beautiful surroundings of Co. Wicklow.

The Experience

The Sabbatical is facilitated by Mel O’Driscoll and Taylor Marie Daniels, drawing on body-based contemplative practices that integrate the wisdom of the Somatic Experiencing tradition with the deep wells of Celtic Christian spirituality.

Together, we will hold a therapeutic healing space grounded in contemplative prayer, ritual, scripture, and the rhythms of the land.

Each week is structured around a contemplative rhythm of stillness, learning and movement. Teachings will deepen experience as we visit sacred sites in the surrounding landscape each week.

The programme includes:

Teachings rooted in Laudato Si’, Magnifica Humanitas, and Somatic Experiencing rooted in Scriptural teaching on the body and incarnation.

Scripture and Catholic Social Teaching.

Daily somatic (body-based) practice, ritual and contemplative prayer.

Small group sharing and personal reflection time.

1:1 integration session to support the slow, joyful work of carrying what has been discovered back into your daily life.

Time to enjoy the natural beauty of our farm and Co. Wicklow.

Weekly pilgrimages to holy places in the Wicklow landscape (e.g. Glendalough).

Name the Approach

In this programme we will teach, facilitate and engage with the Somatic Experiencing methodology developed by Peter Levine. Though a traditionally secular approach to body-based healing, in this programme we will ground all the principals we use in scripture, to highlight God’s purpose for the human body.

This Sabbatical is particularly suited to:

Those in active ministry, pastoral work or religious life seeking renewal

Educators, healthcare workers and those in caring professions

Lay leaders, artists, teachers and seekers drawn to transformational spirituality

Anyone who has been waiting for permission to stop

People with Irish ancestry who are seeking to reconnect to their heritage

Pope Leo XIV’s Magnifica Humanitas reminds us that the human person cannot be reduced to data, efficiency or productivity. Technology no matter how powerful, will never have the final word on what it means to be made in the image and likeness of God.

Our October Sabbatical is, in its own modest way, a lived response to that conviction: an act of faith that the body still knows something the algorithm does not, and that the Earth, if we are still enough to listen, still speaks.

For anyone interested in meeting the facilitators and learning more about what to expect over the four weeks, Mel & Taylor have recorded a video, please click here to hear more.